


Move Forward Together

by Annide



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [23]
Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Dubious Consent, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Underage Sex, M/M, Unhealthy Relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:08:52
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,245
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26732644
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Annide/pseuds/Annide
Summary: After Vijay leaves, Malcolm recounts their relationship to Dani
Relationships: Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell, Malcolm Bright/Vijay Chandasara
Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [23]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1667122
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	Move Forward Together

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Bad Things Happen Bingo: Parting Words Regret

It was late and Malcolm was sitting alone in the dark conference room, looking somewhat down. Or at least more than usual. Dani did the only thing she knew to cheer him up. She made two teas and walked in to sit right by his side.

“Earl Grey?” She said, handing him a cup.

“Thanks.”

A tentative smile appeared briefly on his face, under all the signs that he was over thinking something. A classic Bright move. He never came to her, or anyone else to talk things over. He seemed to prefer isolating himself, as if that ever solved anything. She understood why he was closed off. It had to be some kind of defense mechanism he’d built over the years. She was hoping one day she’d somehow get him to let his guard down around her. As someone with trust issues herself however, she knew it wouldn’t be easy.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Nothing.”

“Oh, sure, that’s why you’re here staring into space with sad eyes instead of going home. Makes sense.”

He gave her one of those looks.

“It’s Vijay.”

“There was something between you two, uh? I sensed baggage.”

“Yeah. There’s so much more I wish I could’ve told him. But now he’s gone again and it’s too late. He’ll never really know how much what happened between us hurt me. How mad I am that I let things be the way they were.”

“Tell me. Tell me what you would’ve told him if you could have.”

“I can’t.”

“Of course you can. I’m here, I have plenty of time and I am a pretty good listener.”

Malcolm let out a sigh, realising there was no point in arguing with her.

“I just wish he knew that, whether or not he was like this on purpose or not, our relationship was bad and it still haunts me when I think about it sometimes. The way he manipulated me, and the way I let him because I was in a bad place and was just happy to have someone I thought understood how I felt. Someone I thought loved me.”

There was the smallest break in Malcolm’s voice on the last sentence and it was enough for Dani to decide to pull him into a hug. He let her, practically falling apart in her embrace, a few tears making their way onto her shirt. They broke apart after a minute, going back to drinking their tea as if that moment had never happened. But it did, and it seemed to have convinced Malcolm that he could share that story with her.

{

After his father was arrested and made the news as one of the most prolific serial killers of the twentieth century, no one wanted to approach Malcolm anymore. He lost all his friends and became the target of every bully he encountered. He was lonely for years, rejected by all his peers, feeling like he didn’t belong anywhere. Like no one could ever care about him again. Just because of what his father had done.

No one understood what he was going through, how it felt to lose his dad like that, without warning. For the dad he and everyone else loved to become a monster overnight. No one understood that pain, or the growing misery, fear and mistrust of others that grew inside him as years passed. He wouldn’t even know how to connect with others even if they wanted him. There was this strong desire to just stop existing building inside him, like a constant presence that sometimes made it hard to breathe. But he wouldn’t share that with anyone, that was his secret to keep. It was too dark a thought to utter out loud. He was just a kid, and the idea, however relieving it sounded, also scared him.

Then his mother sent him to boarding school. Maybe she thought it would help him make friends, to spend all his time there, to live there, share a dorm with them. It didn’t. The kids still thought he was just like his father. A killer, a murderer, a psycho. All around crazy. They wanted nothing to do with him.

He was all alone. Until Vijay. His father had been arrested for smuggling cocaine and no one was interested in being friends with him either. Too afraid people would think they were into drugs. Because surely a boy could only ever be what his father was. Malcolm’s was a serial killer which meant so was he, and Vijay’s was in the drug business which meant he had to be a drug dealer. Kids were cruel and they were easy targets.

They found each other at lunch. They both sat at the corner table. The one everyone else called the rejects’ table. Vijay understood what it was like to have a criminal for a father. To see his family’s worst moment spread across all the news channels, over all the papers. To have everyone, including teachers, treat him like he was a bad seed, bound to take a bad turn eventually, not worth the effort to get to know.

The two of them immediately connected. Malcolm was so happy to have finally found a friend, someone who actually wanted to spend time with him, who seemed to care about him. But he was also afraid he’d do something to scare him away. He wasn’t always sure how to be around him, out of practice with social interactions. He just enjoyed having someone he could talk to for once, someone his own age, who’d been through a similar situation, someone he could tell about his darkest thoughts and that got it, who even had some similar ones himself before. They were both struggling, but now they had each other.

Vijay was always pretty touchy with him and it made Malcolm feel things he didn’t fully understand yet. He couldn’t help looking down at Vijay’s fingers as they fixed his lapel for the hundredth time that day, his eyes going back up only to be met by his.

“Hey, baby boy. Missed you this weekend.” Vijay said as he entered Malcolm’s dorm room, the first day back after Thanksgiving their senior year.

Already he was wrapping him into a tight hug, sneaking a kiss right over Malcolm’s ear. Malcolm was the only kid in school who had his own room, because of the night terrors. They’d been taking advantage of that in the past few weeks. After all, no one really paid much attention to them or whether they followed the rules, as long as they didn’t cause trouble.

“Love you, Whitly.”

“Love you too.”

Malcolm wasn’t sure he actually felt it, but he said it anyway, because it was what he was supposed to say, because it made Vijay happy and he didn’t want to lose him. Later, after their relationship ended, he’d realise that maybe Vijay didn’t feel it either, it was also just something he said. Just like when he told him how amazing he was, how he was maybe too good for him even.

They separated long enough for Vijay to close the door and then his hands were back on Malcolm. He seemed to be unable to spend more than a few minutes without touching him. He dragged him toward the bed. He sat on it with his back against the wall and pulled Malcolm into his arms so he was leaning against his chest. His hand found its way into Malcolm’s pants and their lips stayed glued to each other until it came back out, despite how fast and ragged Malcolm’s breathing became.

Malcolm didn’t care much for any of that, but he didn’t mind it and it didn’t feel bad, so he let Vijay handle him however he wanted. He wasn’t, however, able to reciprocate. He didn’t know how. Once, Vijay grabbed his hand and pulled it down his pants and Malcolm tried. Clearly he did something wrong, didn’t go fast enough, wasn’t comfortable enough to do a good job, because Vijay sighed in frustration and left without a word.

Because he was his first friend since Martin’s arrest, the first person who understood him, the first person he seemed to be able to connect with, Vijay had some kind of power over him. Malcolm always followed along, mesmerised by someone who thought he wasn’t irreparably broken, that his life had value. Someone who wanted him.

He never intended to tell anyone about their relationship. He was unsure about the whole thing and it was still very early. But Vijay convinced him to do it. So when Malcolm went home for the holidays and visited his father, he decided to tell him. He’d already told his mom he had made a friend, a best friend even, and that was enough. But Vijay thought his father should know it was more than that, since being the kids with the bad fathers had been what brought them together. And Malcolm did think telling him would make this whole relationship feel more real, more grounded. He wasn’t sure he wanted Martin to know so much about his personal life though, afraid he would disapprove.

He stood silently in the room, staring down at his shaking hand. He knew his father would know it meant he had something to say, something he was nervous about. He could feel his gaze on him, curious but patient.

“My boy, it is so nice to see you. Tell me, what’s on your mind?”

“Dad, I... you know Vijay? The boy I told you about?”

“Yes, your friend, I remember. I do listen to you.”

“Yeah, of course, well... He and I... We...”

Malcolm took a deep breath. He didn’t know how to get the words out. He felt like he needed another minute, or sixty.

“Whatever you have to say, it can’t be worse than when you called the cops on me, can it?”

Martin laughed. It was his attempt at lightening the mood. Malcolm looked up at him with wide eyes. He couldn’t believe he would bring this up again, now. He breathed in and out again. Closed his eyes for a second and thought of Vijay. Vijay who never judged him for that, who praised him for doing the right thing, for everyone and for himself. He could do this. Just had to rip off the band aid.

“Vijay’s my boyfriend.”

“Wow, good for you, Malcolm. Glad you told me. He makes you happy, right? Because if he hurts you, you know, I know a few ways to make him regret it.”

“Dad...”

“Right, right, you’re not like me. But he does make you happy though, right?”

“He’s the best thing in my life.”

“Good, I’m glad.”

Malcolm had thought this would make his relationship with Vijay move forward, become more solid, but little did he know it was all about to come crashing down. He got back to school to find an overjoyed Vijay, smiling bigger than ever. His father had gotten out of jail and apparently it meant new friends for him.

“My roommate invited me to a party, you have to come with me.”

“No one wants me there.”

“I do, Whitly, come on.”

They went, to this party and a few others after that, but Malcolm never managed to fit in like Vijay did. He faded in the background, wary of everyone, uncomfortable in a crowd of people who seemed to look at him strangely. Vijay said he appeared to be judging them, but Malcolm was under the impression it also went the other way around. Eventually, Vijay stopped inviting him, he stopped sitting at the corner table, the rejects’ table, and Malcolm found himself alone again. Maybe worse off than before.

}

“He never really treated me like an equal. Even now. I tried to talk to him about what happened, but I let him make me believe again that it was my issues that caused all of our problems. I wish I could’ve found the courage to call him out on it. To get mad that he kept calling me Whitly even after I told him it was Bright now.”

“You had the courage to tell me. You don’t have to carry all of that alone anymore.”

Malcolm gave her a tentative smile. She could tell a weight had been lifted off his shoulders by sharing that with her. She was glad she could help. He deserved better than to be held down by his past and she wanted nothing more than to be there for him, standing by his side and making sure he didn’t get buried under all the trauma.

“You’re none of those things, you know that right? You’re not a killer or a psycho or crazy. You’re the strongest person I’ve ever met, and I’m sorry someone took advantage of your weakest point.”

“I’m glad to have someone like you in my life now. It feels like things are finally looking up.”

They locked eyes, both with a smile plastered on their face. It was still too soon for them to become anything more than friends now, they still needed to work on their trust issues a bit, but it felt as though today had been a big step in that direction. They sat there, staring at each other as if the world around them had disappeared. Dani felt weirdly comfortable with him, looking forward to whatever was next for them.


End file.
